


The Long, Winding Road

by Moon_Destiny (Dahlia_Moon)



Category: Power Rangers Ninja Storm
Genre: Community: smallfandomflsh, Dialogue-Only, Drabbles, M/M, Queer Friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-03-10
Updated: 2012-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-16 20:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/168883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dahlia_Moon/pseuds/Moon_Destiny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Series of drabbles exploring Cam/Hunter's relationship in PR: NS and inspired by <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/smallfandomflsh/">smallfandomflsh</a>'s bi-weekly challenges.</p><p>Incomplete/ongoing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Cam doesn’t sleep, he thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [smallfandomflsh](http://community.livejournal.com/smallfandomflsh/)'s challenge #62: naked.

Cam traced the tattoo on Hunter’s bare hip, keeping his touch light so as to not wake the other man. Hunter was naked from the waist up, the thin white sheet covering just his lower half. From the moment they hit the bed, Hunter had zoned out. Sensei was training them harder than ever before and between working at Storm Chargers and school and ninja training, the crimson ranger had run himself ragged.

It didn’t leave them much time for other things. Not that Cam thought they were together just for the sex – although the sex part itself was phenomenal – but the only time they seemed to be together nowadays was when they were training or had Power Ranger business to attend to, neither situations which lent them opportunities to be intimate.

It was somehow comforting for Cam to watch Hunter sleep deeply now. He slept with his mouth partially open, cheek smushed into the pillow, arm hanging over the edge.

It was at this moment that Cam was shocked to realize he loved this man. Maybe they got together by accident at first, but now it was intentional.

And he had no idea how Hunter felt, if Hunter was just in it for the sex because Cam was a convenient body – because Cam was a Power Ranger like Hunter – or if Hunter felt something more. They hadn’t said they loved each other, but it must’ve been heading toward that – at least for Cam.

He didn’t know if he had the courage to find out.


	2. Secrets and Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something was up with Hunter, that much Blake knew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [smallfandomflsh](http://community.livejournal.com/smallfandomflsh)'s challenge #009: Secret(s).
> 
> References to episode 35 “A Gem of a Day”; written from Blake's p.o.v.

"Hey, what’s going on?” Blake asked Tori as he got to Ninja Ops to find Sensei pacing.

“Cam’s gone.”

Blake’s eyes bugged out. “Cam’s gone? As in taken-by-the-enemy gone?”

“No, well, we don’t know but we don’t think it’s that. There hasn’t been any activity since that fight with Condortron.” Tori whispered, her worried gaze directed toward their guinea pig sensei, who was obviously distressed, muttering to himself and not keeping still.

The fact that Cam was missing seemed weird. What was even weirder was that Hunter was missing too. But Blake was used to his brother going off on his own and so Blake didn’t question it. Yet now that Cam was obviously missing too…Could it have been that they were missing together? Was that even possible?

Just how many secrets did his brother have?

~*~

Over the next few days, Blake tried to keep a close eye on his brother but nothing out of the ordinary happened, at least no more unknown excursions to wherever Hunter went off to before.

Blake was starting to think his suspicion was all in his head. OK, so his brother kept the Gem of Souls a secret from everybody - that was understandable in light of Hunter’s explanation. And it could’ve been a total coincidence that Cam and Hunter were missing on the same day.

It was when his brother didn’t want to go riding with him that sent red alarms going off in Blake’s head. His brother never missed an opportunity to race for fun with Blake and show-off.

Something was definitely going on, but what?  
He thought about spying on his brother, but Hunter would catch on pretty quickly and Blake would rather avoid that awkwardness, if at all possible. That only left one other choice, and that would be to outright ask Hunter what was going on. Frankly, he’d rather go with the spying option. He wasn’t much of a talker, and his brother was even less so.

It was when he got the alert that one of Lothor’s monster was on the loose and to get to Ninja Ops right away that he realized Hunter had already beaten him to it, which was odd because Blake had thought his brother was at home enjoying a day off from his job at Storm Chargers. If Blake and Hunter had gotten the alert at the same time, shouldn’t they have arrived at the same time too? How did Hunter beat him to Ninja Ops so fast?

Even while fighting the lame monster Lothor had created, Blake couldn’t get the question out of his mind. Was Hunter there already? If he was, what was he doing at Ninja Ops when he didn’t need to be there? Was it voluntary or did Sensei need him for something?

It was bothering him that he didn’t know the answer and it wasn’t that he didn’t trust Hunter, but in light of recent events, Blake couldn’t help but feel like he didn’t know his brother as well as he thought he did. If Hunter could have kept the Gem of Souls – no matter the reason behind it – he could have other secrets too. And having secrets was dangerous in this business. It meant those secrets could hurt you.

~*~

“Hey, what’re you headed off to?” Blake asked his brother after their shift at Storm Chargers ended and Blake headed to meet Tori for their movie date.

“Just somewhere to be alone.” Hunter bumped fists with his brother and sped off on his motorbike.

It didn’t look like Hunter was going to be revealing any of his other secrets soon, but that was alright. Blake trusted his brother and if it was a secret he needed to know, he’d get to find out someday.


	3. Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hunter's mouth gets him into trouble. Alternatively, it also gets him *out* of it. (Written for the prompt: guilty/not guilty.) Rated NC-17.

When Hunter came out of the shower, and found Cam standing beside the kitchen counter, arms crossed and leveling this _look_ at him, Hunter knew he was done for. He really hadn't meant to do it, he _didn't_ but it was just sitting there, and well...he never could resist temptation.

But he was prepared to apologize and make it up to his boyfriend. And Hunter was a man of his word.

He came closer and angled his body to Cam's. He was still wet from his shower, a cotton towel the only thing between him and Cam's jeans. Hunter knew he was playing dirty and by the way Cam's eyes flicked down toward the towel, and lingered a little too long, Hunter knew that Cam knew that now as well. Still, he had to use some tricks up his sleeve if he was going to get out of this.

He angled his head and nibbled on the juncture between Cam's neck and shoulder blade, sucking the bare, warm skin with his teeth. Cam gave a small breathy sigh. He was still standing with his shoulders tense and not quit giving in to Hunter's administrations, but he wasn't pushing Hunter away either – which was the important thing to note at the moment.

Hunter's lips moved toward the edge of Cam's ear and he started nibbling there. He moaned when Cam turned his face sideways and their lips met. Soon, he was pushing Cam against the counter and Cam had threaded his fingers through Hunter's hair, holding on like Hunter had any notion of going anywhere and pretty sure they were both pretty breathless.

They moved against the counter, toward their living room, the few feet it took them, and tumbled onto the sofa. They rutted against each other, moaning by now, and Hunter had no idea when he lost his towel but he was completely naked now, and Cam was wearing way too many clothes, so he started for Cam's belt and pants. They sucked each other there on the sofa, and after wards, Hunter plastered himself on top of Cam, ready to take a mid-morning nap right then and there. But Cam, it seemed, had other ideas for him.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" he asked, all bright eyed, with his lips swollen and shiny from having Hunter's penis in his mouth and this was totally unfair.

"Yes, your Majesty, I'm going to the store right now."

Hunter lifted himself regrettably from his comfortable position of off Cam, and went hunting for his boxers and pants and a shirt. Man, he really hated wearing pants. Meanwhile, Cam ogled him from the sofa. The lucky bastard.

It was on the way to the store that Hunter promised himself that he wouldn't eat his boyfriend's cereal anymore.

(But of course, no matter how good his intentions were, he would be finding himself in trouble again within the month when Cam found he was out of Captain Crunch again.)


	4. Friday's Child

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tori was on a mission to get something important from Hunter. (Written for the prompt: photograph.)

Tori was on a mission. A mission to take a picture of Hunter. It should've been easy; she was a ninja with badass moves. It shouldn't have been that difficult, except for the fact that it was simply because Hunter was also a ninja and knew how to elude Tori and her camera. She was finally forced to go to Blake and ask if he had any pictures of them he could share. He just laughed at her.

“Oh I'm plenty photogenic, but Hunter is a different story,” he told her.

“Man, I need a picture of him, badly.”

“Should I be jealous?”

Tori tried to hit him, but he blocked her. “Don't be silly,” she said, snapping a picture of him on the couch just to prove him wrong. “It's not a picture for me.”

“Who is it a picture for?”

“Sorry, I promised I wouldn't tell.”

“Really? You can't tell me? I'm hurt, Tori, I thought we had something.”

This time Tori didn't miss when she punched him in the arm.

“Can't you take a picture for me surreptitiously?”

And because Blake could not say no to her, he took her camera, promising he'd try to take a candid picture of his brother, but only if Tori told him who it was for.

*

“Success! Cam totally loved the photo!” Tori said, joining her boyfriend at Storm Chargers.

“Can I just say, again, that this was completely weird? That Cam needed a candid photo of my brother and that you agreed to get it for him because you wanted Cam's baby picture?”

“You haven't heard, but this photo is a legendary photo. It's a photo of Cam in a baby Santa Claus suit. Just take a look at it.” Tori took out Cam's photo from her back pocket.

Instantly, Blake smiled. “Aww, that is precious.”

“I told you so. It's going right in my scrapbook.”

“You don't want baby pictures of the rest of us?”

Tori smiled secretly. “Oh, I have baby pictures of the rest of you. It was just hard getting a picture of Hunter now.”

“I don't even wanna know.” Blake said. He was starting to regret introducing his grandmother to the rest of his team. He had only now remembered she probably had a few photos lying around of Hunter and him as children.


	5. the night was made for loving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One cold night... (Written for the prompt: blanket.) title taken from George Gordon Byron's "So we'll go no more a roving."

Hunter gets up to leave, the room having gotten cold, the heater not kicking in yet. The heater never kicks in when a person wants warmth; it always makes you freeze beforehand. Maybe there's some sort of masochist pleasure in freezing your balls off before the sweet comfort and toasty-ness of a warm room envelopes you.

He sits up, intent on going away, somewhere, though he has no idea where he'd go – it's his room at the Thunder academy after all, but Cam's arm shoots out from underneath the covers before he even gets one leg off the bed and onto the floor.

“Stay,” Cam says.

Isn't that weird? Cam's asking him to stay in his own room. It's messed up, is what it is. But then so are many other things.

Hunter lies back down, not relaxed at all and probably not gonna be able to go to sleep now. But Cam lifts the blanket and covers Hunter with it, his arm sneaking around Hunter's waist underneath, a gentle pressure at his back and a hand on his naked stomach. Why isn't he wearing a shirt? Where are his boxers, is the more pressing problem? He can't answer either.

Oh. There's that warmth he was missing. Cam's head burrows into the back of his neck and Hunter starts freaking out silently in his head. He's not the little spoon, he's not the little spoon, he's not the little spoon.

He's not? Okay, stop badgering him. If he repeats it enough, _it will be true_.

Yet...that feels kinda nice, oddly. His face goes smush into the cool pillow and he thinks he hears soft snores coming from Cam. They're kinda, sorta nice to listen to in the stillness and silence of his room. It makes him feel like he's not alone; like there's a person on this earth who doesn't mind sharing his space, his life, filling him with a happiness he didn't think he ever had before.

Cam fills up his life in other ways too, but he's tired all of a sudden and he never was one for introspection much.

He thinks he closes his eyes to rest them for a minute but he really falls asleep.

Ah, well, by the time he wakes up in the morning, it'll be too late to regret that he let his guard down. And because of Cam Watanabe.

Not that it'd matter. There will be more pressing things in the morning than his quiet, gay freak out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for challenge #15: chocolate. 280 words of pure dialogue. This is the first time I've written a dialogue only fic so hopefully I didn't fail too much. But a little experimentation never hurt anyone (much).

"Where's my birthday present, _Cameron_?"

"I don't think I can give it to you here in front of everyone."

"Ohhh, I'm intrigued now. Will it come in a pretty pink bow?"

"Maybe…"

"I love it when you blush, you know."

"You've mentioned that quite a few times now, so I have some idea."

~*~

"We're alone now."

"This hardly qualifies as the time to give you the present I had in mind."

"I repeat: we're alone."

"And in _public_."

"Oh, so it's a gift you can't give me in public?"

"Well I _could_ , but I wouldn't want to, and stop fishing for clues. You've been smirking the whole day so of course you know what I'm gonna give you."

"I know. But it's so much fun to tease you."

"What am I gonna do with you?"

"I have no idea. You're gonna have to wait and see, won't you?"

~*~

"Happy birthday, Hunter."

"It was a pretty awesome day. This chocolate cake is like a piece of Heaven. And I'm glad we didn't do this in public after all."

"I should have a rule or something about you eating in bed, shouldn't I?

"Nu-uh, I'm the birthday boy here and this birthday boy wants to have his cake and eat it too."

"Fine, but you're changing the sheets after ward and doing the dishes."

"You drive a hard bargain. But seriously, thanks for a pretty kick-ass birthday."

"You're welcome. Maybe for your next birthday, the birthday present will be that we'll do it in a semi-public place."

"You truly mean that?"

"Of course."

"Will wonders never cease?"

"No. Now finish up your cake and maybe we'll go for round two?"


End file.
